Area Sees Growing Numbers Of Food-Insecure Children

Thursday

Area officials say more and more area children are food insecure, meaning they at times lack access to enough nutritious food for a healthy life.

Area officials say more and more area children are food insecure, meaning they at times lack access to enough nutritious food for a healthy life.

Eldon Mushrush of Alma Community Outreach said as of Monday, the agency provided 411 meals in November through its weekend Back Pack Lunch Program at Alma schools. The agency provided 838 Back Pack meals in October, and averages 820 a month. So far this year, Mushrush said, the agency provided 5,800 Back Pack lunches within Alma schools.

Through October this year, Alma Community Outreach provided 7,995 food boxes to homes with children up to age 17, Mushrush said.

"Yes, we’re seeing a change in our total operation. We’re up 36 percent in the number of families we serve, and up 43 percent in the number of people we serve versus last year," Mushrush said.

He credits the increase to area unemployment and employers cutting full-time jobs to part-time. Mushrush also noted the $4.5 billion nationwide cutback on Nov. 1 of federal stimulus funding to the food stamp program, SNAP or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, resulted in a twice-a month influx of people to the agency who previously sought the food box help just once a month.

Alma School Superintendent David Woolly said the district has seen a slight increase annually in students eligible for the free and reduced-price school lunch program in recent years.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, children from households with incomes at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty guidelines are eligible for free school meals. Those from households with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the federal poverty guidelines are eligible for reduced-price school meals. The numbers are used as a poverty measure for school districts.

Woolly said the trend upward is not concentrated in any particular areas. He attributes the growth in eligible children to lingering effects of the economic downturn and a concerted effort by school staff to assure all eligible children participate in the program.

"All children need to eat properly. Those children that live in low-income families that may not have the financial means to provide proper nutrition need to be helped," Woolly said.

State Data

Ken Kupchick, marketing and development director for the River Valley Regional Food Bank, said the food bank’s agencies say they are seeing growing food insecurity among area children.

Kupchick points to increases in numbers of free and reduced-price lunch-eligible children at area schools. He said when he crunched the state numbers for the Fort Smith district, he noted that three out of four students are food insecure, and in some of the schools, nine out of 10 children are.

According to Arkansas Department of Education data for the 2013-14 school year, of the Fort Smith School District’s overall 13,253 kindergarten through 12th-grade enrollment, 8,303 students qualify for free meals and 1,199 for reduced-price meals, about 71.7 percent of the student population.

According to ADE data, of Greenwood’s overall 3,317 enrollment of kindergarten through 12th-grade students, 838 qualify for free school meals and 275 qualify for reduced-price meals.

Of Van Buren’s overall 5,391 kindergarten through 12th-grade enrollment, 2,801 students qualify for free meals and 625 for reduced-price meals. Of Alma’s overall 3,011 kindergarten through 12th-grade enrollment, 1,318 students qualify for free meals and 298 qualify for reduced-price meals.

Statewide, 60.99 percent or 242,779 students qualify for free or reduced-price meals this year. That’s up from 52.79 percent or 200,697 students in the 2004-05 school year, according to ADE data.

Kupchick points to his own "Bologna Sandwich Index." He noted that one food bank client agency, St. John’s Episcopal Church’s Sack Lunch Program, is serving 5,000 sack lunches a month and gives another 1,000 extra sandwiches to people who say they are still hungry.

"We need to enrich bodies and minds," Kupchick said.

Kupchick worries that Arkansas won’t move off the "bad" national lists until it addresses food-insecurity issue among its children. One growing national trend, the Grab N’ Go and Breakfast on the Go programs, shows promise because they overcome the poverty stigma associated with eating a free breakfast in the school cafeteria, Kupchick said.

Van Buren Superintendent Merle Dickerson said Grab N’ Go has been successful in providing an early morning breakfast for many children in the Van Buren schools implementing it. That program allows children to take the food into their first-period classes to eat. Dickerson said he expects the program to grow over the next few years.

Greenwood Superintendent John Ciesla said Greenwood schools participate in Breakfast on the Go as well as the Back Pack program to try to meet students’ daily nutritional needs.

Food Insecurity Hits Kids Harder

According to Feeding America’s 2013 Map the Meal Gap report based on 2011 data, 22.4 percent or more than 16 million of the nation’s 72.8 million children are food insecure, compared to 16.4 percent of the general population.

Statewide, Arkansas and its total child population of 699,550 ties with Florida at 28.4 percent for sixth place in child food insecurity. According to the report, Arkansas has 198,750 food-insecure children, and 1.12 million of Florida’s 3.93 million children are food insecure.

Neighboring Oklahoma has a 25.3 percent child food-insecurity rate and ranks 16th on the national list, according to Map the Meal Gap. That means 233,350 of Oklahoma’s 920,763 children don’t have regular access to nutritious food.

The Van Buren School District saw a jump from 58 percent of students eligible last year for free and reduced-price meals to 63 percent this year. Dickerson said the district has seen an estimated 10 percent increase over the past three years.

Dickerson also attributes the growing numbers to fiscal uncertainty and job loss.

Ciesla said his district’s numbers of eligible children have been pretty stable over the past five years, ranging from 31 percent in the 2009-10 school year to 35 percent this year, a 2 percent drop from last year.

Ciesla attributes Greenwood’s small increase to more parents of junior high and high school students submitting the paperwork for the free and reduced-price lunch program as well as to annual changes in the federal income eligibility guidelines.

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